SRINAGAR: A landslide in the Himalayan region of Kashmir killed six people and left 10 missing, police said on Monday, as unseasonal rains swept India, damaging crops and raising fears of flash floods in the mountainous north.

Hundreds of people fled their homes as Kashmir’s main rivers began to swell and weather forecasters predicted further downpours in the region that was struck by devastating floods seven months ago.

A hillside collapsed onto a house in Ledhan village, about 40km from Srinagar, where three families were sleeping on Monday morning, according to Mushtaq Ahmad, a neighbour. Army and police used shovels and diggers to locate any survivors.

Local police superintendent Fayaz Ahmad Lone said six bodies had been recovered from the home in the village and the death toll was likely to rise further.

Police and witnesses said landslides had buried 16 people in several houses in Chadoora, the worst hit area of the Himalayan region where hundreds were killed in devastating floods last September.

Village resident Mohammed Sultan described how the ground above the houses in Chadoora, 15 kilometres west of Srinagar, collapsed without warning.

“All of them just suddenly got buried alive. Now they are nowhere to be found,” he said.

Authorities said earth-moving machines had been unable to get close because roads had been swept away, leaving police and soldiers armed only with shovels to search for the victims.

The regional police chief said 237 families had been evacuated, most of them from Chadoora, after the government issued a flood alert when the River Jhelum swelled to dangerous levels.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2015

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